When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks'

Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by nimbius on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:18PM (#32121563)

I apprenticed repairing coal cars and mining equipment and I can confirm the industry is pretty wasteful. we used to get cars that still had nearly a hundred pounds of coal in them. we used to quietly shovel it out in the winter and use it to run little shop stoves we called dumpers for heat.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by bombcar on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:24PM (#32121624)

That's called gleaning and dates back to biblical times or before.

If you look at in based on percentages, you see whilst the amount may be large on a human scale, the time to 'get' that last bit isn't worthwhile.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by Gibbon1 on Saturday July 16, 2022 @07:27PM (#32122890)

The bible literally says you have to let widows and orphans glean your fields.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by adrianN on Sunday July 17, 2022 @03:35AM (#32125128)

Do you perchance have a reference for that?

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by marvin on Sunday July 17, 2022 @03:41AM (#32125142)

https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/24-19.htm

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by markdown on Sunday July 17, 2022 @05:37AM (#32125526)

We're deep into late stage capitalism now, so nobody gets to glean... expired (but perfectly fine food) doesn't even get donated lest the corporation get sued when someone chokes on a pretzel.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by dugmartin on Sunday July 17, 2022 @07:23AM (#32125903)

There are many gleaning projects all over the US. I just just looked and here is a nice interactive map: https://nationalgleaningproject.org/gleaning-map/

It is not just “church folk” that participate - my kids public school does it as part of their community service projects.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by roenxi on Sunday July 17, 2022 @06:20AM (#32125659)

"late stage capitalism" is a phrase that doesn't really mean anything; but just to be clear - can't pin that on the capitalists! If the government makes it a liability to give away expired food then it won't happen, capitalism or otherwise.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by markdown on Monday July 18, 2022 @10:46PM (#32146955)

The government doesn't make it a liability. If someone sued you because you choked on something, that's a civil matter. Nothing to do with government.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by xyzzyz on Saturday July 16, 2022 @05:15PM (#32122049)

For 100 pounds of coal, the bulk buyers paid less than $5, typically $2-3. That’s hardly worth the hassle for them.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by joecool1029 on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:27PM (#32121647)

Nowadays we have waste oil burners to heat shops around here. We used to give all our used engine oil to a mechanic neighbor with a big shop.

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Re:When coal first arrived, Americans said 'no thanks' by implements on Sunday July 17, 2022 @08:41AM (#32126280)

Regulated now in the UK - dirty engine oils are ‘hazardous” and need an expensive local council permit.

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